This album might be many things but one it isn't is safe as milk. Well, it is much safer than other Beefheart adventures like Trout Mask Replica but what isn't? Safe as Milk has a very blues feel to it but in a very demented way. It starts with pure blues in the first track and soon develops into something else entirely. You could probably get something similar if you made Howlin' Wolf drop some acid but as no one did this comes across as a very original album indeed.

This is not to say that his is a "hard to listen" album, because it's not. Even the crazier songs like Electricity and Abba Zaba are really great and probably the best ones in the album, the ones which inject a brilliantly demented amount of freshness into it.

Beefheart's voice is truly impressive going from the almost falsetto to sounding like Animal from the Muppet Show. It is not weird in the least that he went on to do loads of collaborations with Frank Zappa. In fact there is something of the Freak Out! to this album, but it is much more accessible in terms of weirdness. On the downside I really would have liked Beefheart to have pushed the envelope a bit further in this album, some of the quieter songs get lost here and the weirdest ones are the ones which stand out as truly innovative.

Still, it is something that you really need to listen to. Buy it at Amazon UK or US

Van Vliet's music has been vastly influential. BBC disc jockey John Peel stated, "If there has ever been such a thing as a genius in the history of popular music, it's Beefheart…I heard echoes of his music in some of the records I listened to last week and I'll hear more echoes in records that I listen to this week." Many artists have cited Beefheart as an influence, notably those emerging during the early punk movement such as the Clash and John Lydon of the Sex Pistols. Tom Waits's shift in artistic direction, starting with 1983's Swordfishtrombones, was, Waits claims, a result of his wife introducing him to Beefheart's music. The early albums of XTC sound very much like Beefheart's instrumental style crossed with classic post-Beatles pop-rock songwriting. More recently, Franz Ferdinand cited Beefheart's 1980 album Doc At The Radar Station as a strong influence on their second LP, You Could Have It So Much Better.

Punk rockers The Minutemen (1980-1985) were great fans of Beefheart's music, and were arguably among the few to effectively synthesize his music with their own, especially in their early output, which featured disjointed guitar and irregular, galloping rhythms--Mike Watt's baselines with the group were often very reminiscent of the bass guitar work in Beefheart's bands. Michael Azerrad describes early Minutemen as "highly caffeinated Captain Beefheart running down James Brown tunes", and notes that Beefheart was the group's "idol"

Many musicians who have worked with Captain Beefheart consider it to be the formative experience of their lives as musician (despite the rigours of Beefheart's unorthodox methods). Some of these alumni have subsequently found collaborators who also seem to have been touched with Beefheart's creative spirit. Since Beefheart left the music business, Eric Drew Feldman has played with Snakefinger, Pere Ubu, PJ Harvey and Frank Black. Gary Lucas has played guitar and collaborated with Jeff Buckley. Moris Tepper has also worked with PJ Harvey, and has collaborated with Tom Waits and Frank Black.

In 2000, The White Stripes released a limited (1300 copies) red-and-white 7" vinyl disc on Sub Pop records' Singles Club. The disc, Party of Special Things to Do contained covers of three Captain Beefheart songs: "Party of Special Things to Do", "China Pig", and "Ashtray Heart".

In 2005, "The Mama Kangaroos: Philly Women Sing Captain Beefheart" was released on the Genus Records label featuring twenty female artists from the Philadeplhia, PA region covering a wide range of the Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band song list.

Ok firstly I am a long time Neil Young fan (Neil Diamond... not so much). So bias out of the way. Buffalo Springfield are indeed a weird band, I'd really call them 3 bands, Young and Buffalo Springfield, Stills and BS and Furay and BS. Frankly they are all amazing and therefore the album comes out good. Neil Young is definitely the more experimental of the three and his tracks have something different to them.

Stills' tracks are also pretty amazing, Furay lags behind slightly but not enough to make any bad songs here. You can see Young developing here some of the things that he would further use mainly on Harvest, his tracks, and particularly Expecting to Fly and Broken Arrow have this orchestral feel to them. Stills, on the other hand is much more of a traditionalist but also a very innovative one and his tracks not only have amazing technical prowess with the instruments but are also beautifully constructed.

Furay leads the group into a much more folksy part of the folk-rock that they are supposedly playing (frankly this album defies categorisation), but this is a welcome change from the more rocksy tracks, so in the end the album comes together really well even though it comes from a completely fragmented band. And this is a problem that will occur in a lot of projects that members of the band get involved in such as Crosby, Still, Nash and Young for example where the album works very well although you can tell where each song is coming from.

The album was released in December 1967 (see 1967 in music) after a tense, protracted period of recording, during which Young was often absent and the band was unable to keep a permanent bass player. (The group's first bass guitarist, Bruce Palmer, spent much of the sessions detained on drug charges.) A number of Los Angeles session players also make appearances.

Among the notable tracks are Young's minor hit, "Mr Soul", a variation on the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction". The album also includes two orchestral experiments Young produced with Jack Nitzsche, a Phil Spector associate: "Expecting to Fly" and "Broken Arrow". Both tracks were intended for solo release, and feature Young only, backed by session players (though Furay overdubbed a harmony vocal on the latter).

Stills contributed four tunes, among them "Rock and Roll Woman", a song apparently about Janis Joplin cowritten (uncredited) by David Crosby, and allegedly featuring Crosby on backup vocals. (He had just been fired by The Byrds.) This song was probably the first collaboration between Stills and Crosby. Simultaneous tension in the Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds, and The Hollies would eventually augur the formation Crosby, Stills, and Nash.

Whoa! Dude! Trippy. Actually pretty great psychadelia here a very consistently great album not matter the register that is attempted, wether it's the bluesy Death Sound or instrumental Section 43 or the purely psychadelic Grace or even the satirical Super Bird these guys do no wrong in this album.

The beautiful stuff about psychadelic rock is the complexity of the tunes and in this case they are both techinically amazing and really nice to listen to, really appealing. And of course there's nothing better than an album that advises Lyndon Johnsson to "drop some acid" or than ends songs like Bass Strings with whispers of LSD. Speaking of the song about Lyndon Johnsson Super Bird I was actually quite pleased and sad at the same time with that song, seeing as it would be nearly impossible to write an equivalent about Dubya and get away with it. Super Birdactually advocates the physical destruction of the US president and even though it is obviously allegorical of taking the President down from office and not an actual incitment to murder I wonder what would happen if someone wrote the same thing today. A visit from the secret services would be the least of their problems.

Oh well, nostalgia for a time of freer expression aside that is certainly not the best track in the album, even though it is one of the most lyrically interesting ones. And this is definitely an album which benefits from drugs, and if LSD is too much for you just try to get up from your chair really fast while listening to it. It works particularly well on hot days like today.

Definitely get it for that slice of psychadelia that we all need in our lives. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.Track Highlights

1. Grace2. Section 433. Bass Strings4. Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine

Final Grade

9/10Trivia

My girlfriend says that Grace sounds very Bjorkish... there is something. Well you need to listen to it anyway, best song in the album.

From Allmusic.com:

Country Joe & the Fish was a compromise name, proposed by ED Denson, an early member and the group's manager -- he quoted Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong about a revolutionary resembling "the fish who swim in the sea of the people"; there was also some thought given to the name "Country Mao & the Fish." Instead, they used "Country Joe" as a reference to McDonald, who was their singer and, as much as there was any organization to it at all, the organizer of the group, and also a reference to Joseph Stalin -- "Country Joe" was a nickname for the Soviet dictator. Ultimately, the name proved a stroke of genius, at once funny to the totally uninformed and provocative to those few who picked up the references, and also a goof on the typical, pop-oriented band names in an era filled with acts like Paul Revere & the Raiders, Barry & the Remains, Mouse & the Traps, et al. It was such a good choice on so many levels, that it was almost subversive, and what's more, subversive on levels that all of those parents who worried over rock & roll never even dreamt of. And given McDonald's and Melton's politics, the name was even better than general analysis would lead one to believe -- in 1965, barely a decade after the peak of the McCarthy era and the Red Scare, and with California already the home of the John Birch Society (a right-wing organization whose founding credo included the notion that President [and former General of the Army] Dwight D. Eisenhower was a communist stooge), the meanings that went into the group's name were readily recognizable to any rightist ideologue.

Friday, July 28, 2006

78. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

Track Listing

1. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band2. With A Little Help From My Friends3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds4. Getting Better5. Fixing A Hole6. She's Leaving Home7. Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite8. Within You Without You9. When I'm Sixty Four10. Lovely Rita11. Good Morning Good Morning12. Day In The Life

Review

Ok, you must know this album. Really, if you don't, death is the least you deserve. Sticking needles under your nails while burning you with a hot iron on the soles of your feet followed by slow dismemberment is a more fitting punishment. You are excused if you've been living in a cave since the mid 60's. If you have, I am quite impressed with the Internet skills which led you here.

So, probably the most famous album in the world ever, usually the album that tops all the best album lists so forth and so on. And there is a reason for that it is a great album. Personally I have some difficulty in being very detached and analytical with it as I've lived all my life with it anywhere near me, I know all the lyrics by heart and this together with Magical Mystery Tourwere on one of the tapes I carried around with me from the age of 7 to 15, this andMan Machine by Kraftwerk, I am weird.

So, trying to do some analysis on this... ok. It is a great album, one of the Fab Four's best although I really prefer Revolver over this one. And no I don't think that the Beatles were the best band ever, but they did pave the way to a load of stuff. Sgt. Pepper's is a particularly important album because it opened the door to a lot of artistic freedom in Pop, people and record companies realised that you can weird but still sell like crazy, you can have a very idiosyncratic album and still be a huge success, make a concept album but still produce hit singles. You know, you don't need to compromise for comerciality's sake.

It's a bit pointless for me to comment on the songs here, if you got to this blog you know them. But if for no other reason the doors that Sgt. Pepper's opened in the music business are cause enough to cherish these 40 minutes of brilliance. As a kid I remember being very confused by the fact that I couldn't tell the breaks between the songs and that fascinated me, as you get older there are plenty of things to fascinate here, but still the way each song leads perfectly into a completely different one makes me love this. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. A Day in The Life2. She's Leaving Home (Look at the Beach Boys influence here)3. Within You Without You (I'm a sucker for Harrison's Indian hippie crap)4. Lovely Rita

Final Grade

9/10 (Revolver is better)

Trivia

93

From Wiki

The celebrities and items featured on the front cover are (by row, left to right):

* Cloth grandmother-figure by Jann Haworth * Cloth Figure of Shirley Temple by Jann Haworth * A Mexican candlestick * A television set * A stone figure of a girl * Another stone figure * A statue brought over from John Lennon's house * A trophy * A doll of the Indian goddess Lakshmi * A drum skin, designed by fairground artist Joe Ephgrave * A hookah, or water tobacco pipe * A velvet snake * Fukusuke, Japanese china figure * A stone figure of Snow White * A garden gnome * A tuba

People who were originally intended for the front cover but were ultimately excluded:

* Jesus Christ (Removed because the LP would be released a few months after John Lennon's Jesus statement)* Mahatma Gandhi (Removed because EMI felt that his presence would offend the Indian market)* Leo Gorcey (Removed because he requested a fee)* Adolf Hitler* Elvis Presley (singer)* Germán Valdés "Tin Tan" (Removed because he requested Ringo change him for a Mexican Tree)

You either love or hate Nico, I love her and my girlfriend hates her, so big arguments have been had around this album in the last few days. Not as big as the ones on Frank Zappa though. Well, saying that I love Nico might be an overstatement, but I do love the albums she put out mainly because she was smart enought to associate (and sometimes fuck) the right people at the right time.

This album is a perfect example of that, she takes Lou Reed, John Cale and Sterling Morrison (a.k.a. Velvet Underground) and makes one of the loveliest and pretiest albums ever. If you can tolerate Nico singing that is. I admit that her voice is not easy to get into, as my girfriend says she sounds like an albatross, but a lovely albatross. The way she brings bleakness and depressiveness to the very beautiful songs in this album is something to be admired. In fact I found this album to be quite in the same vein as Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left with its beautiful but simple strings and great guitar playing. Strangely there is something of the Devendra Barnhart here as well, particularly in the first track.

Even if you can't take Nico's particular voice make an effort and repeated listenings to this will definitel improve you relationship to her. I really can't reccomend this album enough. It's Velvet Underground and Nico doing Folk, how much better can it be? There is one track here in the middle which goes much more to the experimental side, and that is It Was a Pleasure Then, but weirdly enough it works, it starts almost like a Sigur Ros soundscape and goes on to a feedback fest all the while making Nico shine as the most melodic tone in the song, which creates a perfect contrast to all other tracks where Nico is the perfect imperfection on the beautiful arrangements.

1. The Fairest of the Seasons2. Chelsea Girls3. It Was a Pleasure Then4. These Days5. I'll Keep it With Mine

I couldn't have just four.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

She really can't sing...but still there's something there. Must be heroin.

From Wiki:

Musically, Chelsea Girl is best described as a cross between chamber folk and Sixties pop. The musical backing is relatively simple, consisting of one or two guitars or, alternatively, a keyboard instrument, played by either Browne or (a combination of) her Velvet Underground colleagues. There are no drums or bass instruments. Adding to the chamber folk feel of the music is the strings and flute arrangement superimposed over the initial recordings by producer Tom Wilson and arranger Larry Fallon without involving or consulting Nico.

Nico was dissatisfied with the finished product. She had wanted more guitars plus bass and drums, but it was vetoed by the production team. Of the superimposed arrangements, she said she could live with the strings, but the flutes rendered the album unlistenable to her.

Because of the Velvet Underground band members involvement and the similarities with the softer The Velvet Underground and Nico tracks, Chelsea Girl is sometimes seen by fans as a companion record to that band's discography. Polydor (the record label that oversees The Velvet Underground's Universal Music Group back catalogue) tends to agree, adding Chelsea Girl tracks to Peel Slowly and See, the 2002 Deluxe edition of The Velvet Underground and Nico and the 2005 Velvet Underground compilation album Gold.

Well, is this a crappy album. And I really love Brazilian music, there will be some good albums in the future and there have been some in the past. I am pretty sure the guys in the book just added this to the list because of two reasons, because they don't understand anything about Brazilian music and because they didn't even understood this album.

The guy in the 1001 Albums book says that this is a great album and pays special attention to what he calls the "wordless" Canoeiro, which would be impressive if it was wordless. The sad reality is that it isn't! It's in Brazilian Portuguese and just because the asshole didn't get that he thought she was just scatting through the track. What a dipstick.

She does scat throughout the album however, but scatting as in shitting all over it. A good example is The Parade (A Banda) which murders a perfectly good song. Then she decides that it is an excellent idea to make a duet with your little child. Yeah, that always fucking works. There are two not-bad songs here, the first and last one. And that's it. The rest is frankly bad for Bossa Nova standards.

And that's another thing that pisses me off, the album is called Beach Samba and there's not a single Samba IN THE WHOLE FUCKING ALBUM. There's lame attempts at bossa nova murdered by Disney film arrangements try to sell a respectable and lovely music style to the frankly braindead american easy listening/lounge music market. Astrud did some good things in her life, this wasn't one of them. Don't buy it at Amazon UK or US. And don't stream it from Napster.

Track Highlights

1. Stay2. Não Bate O Coração

And that's it.

Final Grade

3/10

Trivia

BLERGH!

And what the fuck is Verve doing putting this crap out? They are a good company...

Monday, July 24, 2006

75. Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind (1966)

Track Listing

1. I Love Your Lovin' Ways2. Four Women3. What More Can I Say4. Lilac Wine5. That's All I Ask6. Break Down And Let It All Out7. Why Keep On Breaking My Heart8. Wild Is The Wind9. Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Hair10. If I Should Lose You11. Either Way I Lose

Review

Nina Simone has one of the best and most expressive voices in the history of the 20th century. Not only that but she is also an amazing pianist and at times a very gifted lyricist. She has always had a problem however, she has always been too inconsistent. Simone moved from Jazz to Soul to Pop to angry intreventionism in the space of one album, this one is a good example of that. There are some truly amazing songs here, the 4 tracks that I selected for Track Highlights below are essential hearing for anyone in the world. The problem is the album consists of 11 songs.

In this album Nina doesn't really come across as anything, not a thoughtful and profound singer or a poppy performer, because she changes register so fast that one song invalidates the previous one. You really come out of this album without knowing what she wants exactly. One of the reasons for this dispersion might be the fact that this is little more than a compilation of several studio and live performances artificially made into an album. But on the other hand all her studio albums of this period are equally scatter-brained.

That said, when she hits her stride she is amazing but is unfortunately one of those artists for which it is better to buy a Best Of than an Album, or even better make your own Nina Simone mixed tape. On this album she is particularly good on the plaintive and sad tracks, the too happy tracks don't work as well here because it is a primarily morose album and they cut the feeling of it, they just seem out of place. Of course Nina produced great chirpy tracks outside this album (Sinnerman, Love Me or Leave Me, My Baby Just Cares For Me) but this is just not the album for them. If you consider an album to be something more than a compilation of songs, this one fails. I am sorry to have to say this as it is the only Nina Smone album on the list and I really love her.

You can stream this from Napster or buy it at Amazon UK or US.Track Highlights

1. Wild Is The Wind2. Four Women3. Lilac Wine4. Black Is The Colour of My True Love's HairFinal Grade

6/10

Trivia

She was an extremely gifted pianist, and you should at least get Wild is The Wind and Four Women from this album.

From Wiki:

At seventeen, Simone moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she taught piano and accompanied singers. She was able to begin studying piano at New York City's prestigious Juilliard School of Music but lack of funds meant that she was unable to fulfill her dream of becoming America's first African-American concert pianist. She later had an interview to study piano at the Curtis Institute, but was rejected. Simone believed it was because she was black.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

74. The Yardbirds - The Yardbirds (a.k.a. Roger The Engineer) (1966)

Track Listing

1. Lost Woman2. Over, Under, Sideways, Down3. The Nazz Are Blue4. I Can't Make Your Way5. Rack My Mind6. Farewell7. Hot House Of Omagarashid8. Jeff's Boogie9. He's Always There10. Turn Into Earth11. What Do You Want12. Ever Since The World Began13. Psycho DasiesReview

Ok, excuse me if I don't make much sense, but I've just came back from a Saturday night out and I am a bit tipsy. That disclaimer done ,on with the show! Crappy fuck Eric Clapton ( who actually plays some mean guitar) left the Yardbirds before this album. And they replaced him just with Jeff Beck, so... not a bad trade. Seeing as he's great! And this album lives off his guitar talent like crazy.

This actually a pretty cool album, it is definitely rocky, but it has a lot of blues elements, Clapton actually left because he needed a more tradional Blues band as we saw in yesterday's review. Their experimentality plays off really well here and I don't know if I am crazy but I can recognise elements here of what would later be post-punk! You know, it's weird post-punk a decade before punk? But there are definitely some tracks here, particularly towards the end of the album which have a definite gothy/Joy Division type feel. If you want to check that out get Turn Into Earth or Ever Since The World Began... or even the beggining to What Do You Want, which then moves into 60's rock.

There's something weird here, either these guys are very ahead of their time or I'm just crazy. My girlfriend confirms their post-punkyness however, it's like Manchester in the early 80's and I'm scared. Props to The Yardbirds though! Still, I have a problem with the album, it loses it's greatness towards the middle, it starts and ends really well, but it isn't cohesive enough for a 10 or a 9.

Definitely buy it however at Amazon UK or US. You can also stream it from Napster.Track Highlights

1.Turn Into Earth2. Eve Since The World Began3. Lost Woman4. Over, Under, Sideways Down.Final Grade

8/10Trivia

I hate it when albums are uneven.

From Wiki:

The Yardbirds (US- and France-title: Over Under Sideways Down) is an album by The Yardbirds, released in 1966. It was the only Yardbirds album with all originally-written material. Although the record was officially titled The Yardbirds, it has since been referred to, first coloquially, then semi-officially, as Roger The Engineer, a title stemming from the drawing on its front cover, a cartoon of the record's audio engineer Roger Cameron by band member Chris Dreja. Due to the influence of Jeff Beck's experimentation with guitar distortion, the album is considered a precursor to heavy metal.

When you think of Clapton today there are some unfortunate memories that really marr the image. Wonderful Tonight is but one example of unmitigated pigshit, another one was his stated support for asshole motherfucker Enoch Powell (look him up if you live across the pond). But cast your mind back to 1966 when I wasn't even a little swimmer in my father's bollocks. Then Clapton was God, there were grafitti attesting to this all over London.

You can tell why those graffiti were appearing in this album, whatever one can say about Clapton, his guitar playing was phenomenal. And this is an interesting little album, as it is a fully British blues affair. Eric Clapton had quit the Yardbirds to look for something more traditional and John Mayall provided that, this is pretty close to pure blues, although it does have a more rocky feel to it and the electric guitars rock a bit harder than any previous blues. The added stuff isn't enough to put it anywhere near the rim of the blues category, it's more a natural evolution of blues than a departure from it.

And for British blues players they make some really good shit. The quality of Clapton's guitar playing is unimpeachable even if I secretly want to impeach the little fuck. And the pace that he gives the music is also something that is really worth listening to. Is this the best Blues album ever? Certainly not. I much prefered Muddy Waters Live at Newport for example. Muddy gives a lot more of personality to his songs, this album on the other hand risks having all the songs meld into each other. There is a lack of personality to each individual track, which is really sad. It has got the most astounding technique but the soul doesn't follow through.

It is often referred to as The Beano album because the photograph on the album cover shows Clapton reading The Beano, a well-known British children's comic.

Apart from being one of the most important albums in blues history, it was likely the first time anyone had heard a Gibson Les Paul guitar through an overdriven Marshall amplifier; this unique sound would become highly influential. The re-introduction of the Les Paul by Gibson was largely fueled by the blues boom it often featured on. Clapton's incendiary playing inspired graffiti bearing the legend "Clapton is God" on the streets of London.

The Bluesbreakers, led by John Mayall, included John McVie on bass, Hughie Flint on drums, with John Almond, Alan Skidmore and Dennis Healey making up the horn section.

What a great album. It takes a bit to get used to it, but it grows on you like a magic mushroom. This is the birth of Acid Rock, and is there anything better than psychadelia? No, not really. You get eased in by the album because the first track is quite well known, it is also the opening track of the film High Fidelity, you know, "You're gonna wake up one morning as the sun greets the dawn, (...) You didn't realise (x4)". Got it? Good. A nice little garage rock hit to start things off.

You quickly move into the kingdom of pretty lights and flying lizards with Rollercoaster where the psychadelia is very much up front, you can't help but slowly wiggle your fingers near your head in a trippy way. If you don't know what I mean, don't lose sleep about it. Then the whole album is a bit of a rollercoaster, there's a very nice ballad in Splash 1 (Now I'm Home) and the psychadelia returns for the rest of the album, in a really good way.

Now, this album is not without negatives and I would really like to punch their producer, Lelan Rogers, who happens to be Kenny Rogers' brother, another reason to punch him. The Elevatorssound like they are at the bottom of a well for the whole album, and I really would like to listen to their music in a cleaner way. Still it does give it that otherworldly feel. So... the album doesn't lose too much from it.

My advice? Get it. It's good stuff. Napster, pandering to the Spice Girls generation doesn't have it, so... get it from Amazon UK or US, I'm sure the Elevators wouldn't mind it if you got it illegally, through eMule *wink* but God would.

Yes, it is the first 4 songs in the order they play. Coincidence? Maybe.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

Probably the only band ever to feature an electronic jug.

Trippy stuff man.

From Wiki:

Roky Erickson was the band's singer, guitarist and a songwriter. The Elevator's only hit, "You're Gonna Miss Me" was written by Erickson (he recorded it with his first band "The Spades"). After pleading insanity on marijuana charges, he was committed to Rusk mental hospital, where he was reportedly administered shock and thorazine treatments.

Today, the 13th Floor Elevators continues to influence new generations of musicians. In 1990, 21 different contemporary bands — including R.E.M., ZZ Top, The Jesus & Mary Chain, and Primal Scream — recorded covers of Elevators songs on the tribute recording, Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson. In 2005, a panel at the SXSW music festival discussed the music of the Elevators and Powell St. John, one of the Elevators' songwriters.

The band's music also continues through live performances of the Tommy Hall Schedule as an Elevators tribute band, and Erickson's younger brother Sumner Erickson performing Elevators' music with bassist Ronnie Leatherman. In September 2005, Roky Erickson performed at the Austin City Limits music festival with The Explosives.

This is a most beautiful album, indeed. Ok, this album has amazing harmonics, but you put it side by side with the Mamas and the Papas it sounds even better. You are bound to know these songs but if you've never taken particular attention to the lyrics there's a lot you are missing here. In fact I don't think I've ever heard an album which is so subtly political, almost subliminary in its politics and it starts and ends political.

Scarborough Fair political? I hear you ask. Indeed. One of the most wonderful things in that track is how it is mixed with the so called Canticle, a completely different track which is intertwined in the harmonies about the Vietnam War. The same is done at the end in Silent Night, the traditional carol is played over a radio broadcast of the news that day. A harrowing state of affairs which puts the whole carol in a sarcastic perspective.

The songs between these two are also amazing, Homeward Bound is a classic, and the social commentary continues in songs like Simple Desultory Phillipic about Dylan (making fun of Dylan, the fucking bitches, who do Tiny Guy and Male Pattern Baldness Man think they are?). Sometimes the fact that they are literate songwriters doesn't help them that much. Dangling Conversation is a bit name-droppy, as is the Phillipic, and also has an over the top string arrangement.

It is however, one of the most beautiful and finely crafted album that I've had the pleasure to review. They will eventually get better, and Simon is great solo. Bald Bloke... not so much. Bright eyessssss burning like fire.... yes. Napster has an incomplete version of the album for download, which is missing the important last track, so buy it at Amazon UK or US.

They look so uncool. Don't hold it against them (I wouldn't hold it against them if they paid me.)

The News Bulletin:

This is the early evening edition of the news.

The recent fight in the House of Representatives was over the open housing section of the Civil Rights Bill.

Brought traditional enemies together but left the defenders of the measure without the votes of their strongest supporters.

President Johnson originally proposed an outright ban covering discrimination by everyone for every type of housing but it had no chance from the start and everyone in Congress knew it.

A compromise was painfully worked out in the House Judiciary Committee.

In Los Angeles today comedian Lenny Bruce died of what was believed to be an overdose of narcotics.

Bruce was 42 years old.

Dr. Martin Luther King says he does not intend to cancel plans for an open housing march Sunday in the Chicago suburb of Cicero.

Cook County Sheriff Richard Ogleby asked King to call off the march and the police in Cicero said they would ask the National Guard to be called out if it is held.King, now in Atlanta, Georgia, plans to return to Chicago Tuesday.

In Chicago, Richard Speck, accused murderer of nine student nurses, was brought before a grand jury today for indictment.

The nurses were found stabbed and strangled in their Chicago apartment.

In Washington the atmosphere was tense today as a special subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American Activities continued its probe into anti-Viet Nam war protests.

Demonstrators were forcibly evicted from the hearings when they began chanting anti-war slogans.

Former Vice-President Richard Nixon says that unless there is a substantial increase in the present war effort in Viet Nam, the U.S. should look forward to five more years of war.

In a speech before the Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in New York, Nixon also said opposition to the war in this country is the greatest single weapon working against the U.S.

That's the 7 o'clock edition of the news, good night.

Scarborough Fair/Canticle Lyrics

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thymeRemember me to one who lives thereShe once was a true love of mine

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt (On the side of a hill in the deep forest green)Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (Tracing a sparrow on snow-crested ground)Without no seams nor needlework (Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain)Then she'll be a true love of mine (Sleeps unaware of the clarion call)

Tell her to find me an acre of land (On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves)Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (Washes the ground with so many tears)Between the salt water and the sea strand (A soldier cleans and polishes a gun)Then she'll be a true love of mine

Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather (War bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions)Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme (Generals order their soldiers to kill)And to gather it all in a bunch of heather (And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten)Then she'll be a true love of mine

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thymeRemember me to one who lives thereShe once was a true love of mine

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

70. Rolling Stones - Aftermath (1966)

Track Listing

1. Mother’s Little Helper2. Stupid Girl3. Lady Jane4. Under My Thumb5. Doncha Bother Me6. Goin’ Home7. Flight 5058. High And Dry9. Out Of Time10. It’s Not Easy11. I Am Waiting12. Take It Or Leave It13. Think14. What To Do

Review

I quite like this album, there are however some problems with it. Firstly some of the lyrics are quite annoying and a bit sexist as well, Under My Thumb is a good example of a song that sounds particularly spiteful, but is a great track musically speaking.

So there is this duality here between great track musically with lyrics I really don't care for. Lady Jane is another great example of a beautiful track that is marred by pedestrian lyrics. Still, it makes beautifull use of the harpsichord and really manages to get an Elizabethan feeling to a Stones track. Another problem is that some track really don't leap out at you. The extra long Going Home is a nice track with some nice instrumental bits but it really doesn't deserve its eleven minutes running time.

And if there was any argument between the comparative greatness of the Beatles versus the Stones this kind of solves it. This was put out the same year as Revolver and is nowhere are fresh sounding or innovative, this isn't to say that it is bad, which it is not; it is actually a great album, but it is just that.

The Stones still have some very bluesy songs like on earlier albums, but they start being replaced more and more by rockier tunes. The American version of this album included Paint It Black, but also ommited loads of songs on the UK version, so I would advise you to get the UK one and you can get Paint It Black anywhere really. So, stream it from Napster or buy it from Amazon UK or US.Track Highlights

1. Lady Jane 2. Under My Thumb3. Out Of Time4. Mother's Little Helper

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

Do get Paint It Black as well.

Oh, the Stones should have stopped making crap a long time ago.

From Wiki

Once again, two editions of the album were released. The first release of Aftermath appeared in April of 1966 as a fourteen-track long-player, and is considered by many to be the definitive version. Issued between the non-LP single releases of "19th Nervous Breakdown" and "Paint It, Black", Aftermath proved a big smash, spending eight weeks atop the UK charts.

In the US however, fourteen tracks was considered too many. With a substituted cover art, the American edition of Aftermath, released that June, features a subtly re-shuffled running order that eliminates "Out Of Time", "Take It Or Leave It" and "What To Do" (all later released in the US), while replacing "Mother's Little Helper" with current #1 hit "Paint It, Black".

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

69. The Mothers of Invention - Freak Out! (1966)

Track Listing

1. Hungry Freaks Daddy2. I Ain't Got No Heart3. Who Are The Brain Police4. Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder5. Motherly Love6. How Could I Be Such A Fool 7. Wowie Zowie 8. You Didn't Try To Call Me 9. Any Way The Wind Blows 10. I'm Not Satisfied 11. You're Probably Wondering Why I'm Here 12. Trouble Everyday 13. Help I'm A Rock 14. It Can't Happen Here 15. Return Of The Son Of Monster Magnet

Review

If Revolver and Pet Sounds were two extremely inventive albums this year, Freak Out! by The Mothers is not behind them. In fact Zappa and friends are so ahead of their time that they're ahead of our time. There is just a level of strangeness here which is incomparable to anything else I've reviewed here.

The title is extremely appropriate, and if you don't Freak Out! once or twice while listening to this there is something seriously wrong with you. Zappa actually manages to make this double album quite digestible by incrementally rising the freak stakes from quite "normal" rock to the weirdest shit in the last track. The album just gets progressively weirder and weirder.

One of the highlights here, Who Are the Brain Police?, sounds like a very demented Beach Boys song, Brian Wilson during a very bad acid trip. Zappa's lyrics are also amazing, at times extremely funny and at other times extremely interventive or just plain surreal. This is something that needs to be listened to to be believed.

Finally let me say that this is definitely not an album for every one. My girlfriend hates it for example, it makes her physically ill. I can understand that, and I'd be lying if the first time I heard it I didn't feel a sudden turining in my stomach in the last four tracks mainly. But it grows on you and you start admiring Zappa for his amazing compositional talent and love for experimentation.

The back cover. The small text reads: "These Mothers is crazy. You can tell by their clothes. One guy wears beads and they all smell bad. We were gonna get them for a dance after the basketball game but my best pal warned me you can never tell how many will show up...sometimes the guy in the fur coat doesn't show up and sometimes he does show up only he brings a big bunch of crazy people with him and they dance all over the place. None of the kids at my school like these Mothers...specially since my teacher told us what the words to their songs meant.Sincerely forever,Suzy CreamcheeseSalt Lake City, Utah."